25 best cold-opens in SNL history
By David Rouben
21. My name is Jeff, Jeff Sessions
Kate McKinnon has been on fire during this current news cycle. When SNL kept bringing on guest stars to play political figures, it was easy to forget that the show still had regular cast members. But while McKinnon’s impression of Hillary Clinton was spot on, she also took turns playing Kellyanne Conway, Betsy DeVos, Rudy Giuliani, Robert Mueller, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Sessions among many others.
As Sessions, McKinnon imagined him as Forrest Gump in a cold open. It’s appropriate, because spending one year in the Trump White House is akin to the several years that span Forrest Gump. The sketch began, predictably, with Forrest Sessions offering a box of chocolates to Leslie Jones, then he made fun of Donald Trump’s weird handshake. McKinnon joked about one of her other characters, Kellyanne Conway (which, in a weird way, makes it okay?) by showing a photo that looks like she “has no legs.”
The reason they did the sketch was because it was timely, since Sessions made headlines for refusing to disclose two separate meetings with the Russian envoy, which led to his recusal from the Russia investigation. Given all that’s happened since then, that feels like a lifetime ago. The recusal was a clever way for SNL to sneak in a “run Forrest run” reference, proving that, when it comes to the news, the jokes write themselves.
After a brief cameo from Putin, it was time for the host of the episode, Octavia Spencer, to show up. She reprised one of her best known roles, Minny Jackson in The Help, where she famously baked a pie with a special “brown” ingredient for her racist housekeeper. She offers the same pie to Sessions, who gobbles it up before kicking off the show.
This cold open is just one of many examples of how SNL can tell the same story that many people read with fear and uncertainty and find the humor in it. Late night talk shows do it too, which is why so many people say they get their news from these programs as opposed to regular outlets. Even when things are at their bleakest, the best way to get over it is to just laugh.